Who are all the people who keep calling and saying they are assigned to me. I think I’m on the 4th person and she’s coming to my house? I just started it about a week ago. Did I miss an explanation of this somewhere? I’m cautiously hopeful because I’m sleeping for the first time in my life, but I’m easily confused and can’t understand why there are so many people assigned? Is everyone having this?
At our annual meeting in May, Our board announced they are using 20% of our reserves. So 8k out of 40. Plus what we would have added to it this year. When someone asked if we get to vote on this, the president said no. Our HOA counsel did not disagree.
Yet ORC 5312 clearly states that they need a majority of homeowners to approve in writing. This is written in bold on the law firm website.
What is the purpose of these laws if HOAs refuse to follow them. Is there any way to hold them accountable other than to take them to court?
Has anyone been able to hold a board accountable for this law in Ohio? Our reserve has only increased $2000 in 6 years while they collected $100k in assessments. So I really think we should have been voting in other years. Should I email all neighbors about this including the board and just ask if we should be holding this vote?
EDIT.
Here is what our HOA Law firm says in bold -
majority of the ownership’s voting power is necessary to waive the fully funded reserve requirement, and the vote for waiver must be taken each year.
This is their detailed explanation - https://communityassociations.law/article/budgets-reserves-and-the-ohio-requirement-for-an-annual-ownership-vote-if-reserve-funding-is-to-be-waived-the-special-assessment-problem/
In our budget, we are spending down 20% of the reserve. In 7 years we have only been able to grow the reserve by about 2k. The expense isn’t necessary. And we don’t have money if we have an emergency. We have never completed a reserve study.
I have been analyzing HOA lien and foreclosure cases in my county. I started noticing multiple cases filed in the same minute.
Benutech reported that an HOA lien was filed every 90 seconds in 2025. Up 8%. I think that could more than triple this year as AI gets more widespread in HOAs.
They automate everything. There’s little time for anyone to catch any errors. There’s no human involvement. Is that what HOAs were meant to be? Our HOA’s law firm brags that the board and managers don’t need to do anything.
They upfront the legal fees to the HOA so there’s 0 cost and 0 time. It’s becoming a machine talking to another machine at least until you’re in court. Then it’s no longer your neighbors. And you don’t have the money to fight I guess until someone invents AI lawyers who defend you? To be fair I’ve used AI especially vlex to deal with our current situation but this software is designed to be a predatory debt collector. They brag about their predictive analytics. And how inexpensive it is to file the cases. https://anva.com/how-ai-is-reshaping-hoa-law-firms-in-2026/
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Our bylaws say that 10 homeowners can sign a petition and present to board to hold a special meeting. We did this. We actually gathered 12 homeowner signatures just in case because they threw out 2 legitimate votes at the annual meeting that would have put one of us on the board.
We have want 2 things - 1) vote to add 4 members to the board (we have at least 4 willing), board is 3 members. We want more representation. And 2) if that passes, we will vote immediately.
The board acknowledged our petition. After 12 days they started asking for a private meeting with one homeowner. They specifically requested no legal counsel and no recording. 2 of the 3 board members are lawyers so that would be a fair fight.
As a group we crafted a response that we want to keep everyone informed and everything in writing. We sent a draft of our resolution. We sent a draft of the annual meeting notice.
My main question- they wrote back and said they will not pay for the meeting location. We have locations that meet requirements but we need the date to be set. They said they aren’t going to do anything if we don’t agree to meet. And that we are obviously delaying. We replied much faster than their 12 days. I don’t get their strategy. If they don’t set a meeting, we are allowed to schedule it without them. I dont understand why they insist that the association only pays for annual meeting costs. They also say we need to pay for the business expenses (postage to mail notices). We can and will pay for a meeting room, but they refused to cite a law or bylaw that only annual meetings are covered. Our bylaws don’t say we must meet with the board before a special meeting. I’m inclined to ignore them. They ignore plenty of emails from us. And repeatedly insult us. Anyone see anything like this? They must have a lot to hide or something.
They keep saying we need to talk through decisions but the bylaws are clear. We sent the agenda with the petition. They have 30 days to choose a date. Then we can choose it ourselves. What can we need to talk about. They even said we sent a ‘lawyered up’ response. We do not have a lawyer. We are all educated though and can read the rules and use AI when needed. Seems bizarre that a lawyer would speak negatively if we did have a lawyer.
Anyone know what I’m missing? We got several messages earlier in the year that help was needed and they hope younger members will take up the ‘oar of responsibility’. Now we are trying to get them help. We chose to add 4 because our bylaws allow 7. Ideally we would love to fill all 4 seats but at a minimum we want to get at least one person on the board who can represent our concerns.
Does Ohio 5312.11 allow an HOA to assess fines for violating rules if the HOa’s bylaws do not list any fines? The bylaws say the board can charge for damages associated with the failure of an owner to comply with bylaws but it doesn’t say anything about fines or penalties beyond damage. I don’t see how damages could be proved in most cases.
Our property has easement for storm water and there’s a giant riprap area at the foot of the hill. How do I deal with weeds, they grow quickly.
I have contacted city and county and so far no one has the stormwater plan.
Our articles of incorporation refer to a stormwater management plan. Our declaration refers to the stormwater management plan 3 times.
The plat map shows the easements are to the city.
The HOA says they don’t have the stormwater management plan. The City says that the County engineer should have it. The County says that the City has it. HOA legal counsel says it doesn’t exist. But it must if the article of incorporation and the declaration mentions it.
Has anyone run into this? If we cannot track them down is it possible to amend our bylaws and declaration without the document? I appreciate any tips.
Has anyone successfully replaced legal counsel for their HOA. I can use tips on starting this process. The majority of members. Far more than half support this.
Our documents are more than 40 years old. The HOA hired a legal firm to amend and restate them. Originally the premise was that they don’t comply with 2010 Ohio laws. However they have proposed an extensive list of changes well beyond what is covered by the state.
One question I have is that one of the board members says he is drafting it. Does that make sense? I thought the law firm would draft it.
The board insisted they could not provide a comparison between the old and new documents. So some of the neighbors did this. They said they couldn’t send it out as it would be too time consuming to review for accuracy. We created a website and posted it. They said that it wasn’t feasible to gather input on every change. I don’t understand why so we created a survey and gathered input. With almost 50% of households completing it, we have a wide variety of views. I think this is good and a sign of an unbiased survey. We tried hard to be sure it was completely neutral.
We generated about 70 questions and requests for clarification from the survey. The board says that a less specific document is better because it allows more flexibility. I am concerned that will open us up to uneven implementation and it won’t hold up legally.
We have tried asking questions but we keep getting absolutely rude and insulting responses from a board member. I don’t think this is ethical but is that something that happens in other HOAs?
Does anyone have any experience going through a major amendment and expansion? What worked well? Is it normal for board members to actually write the language?
Finally our old documents allow proxy voting but it’s not clear. The board sent out a form stating that if you give your proxy to someone you can direct your vote. However if you give your proxy to the board, it’s a discretionary proxy. I think it’s odd to use one form for a directed and a discretionary proxy and I wondering if that is legal.
I know this is long. I appreciate anything anyone can share. I have been reading all the resources on this Reddit and it’s very helpful. But I still have questions I have not found an answer to and we are running out of time (annual meeting scheduled).